New London puts land records online

New London - Last week, the City Clerk's Office took another leap into the 21st century by making land records available online.

New London joins several communities in the region that already offer online access to deeds, mortgages, liens, power of attorney and other filings that are part of the land records.

The service will allow attorneys, title searchers, surveyors and the general public the ability to view and print documents from their home or office.

East Lyme, Groton and Norwich are among the municipalities that already offer online access to land records.

The cost is $2 per page. The city will make $1 from each transaction and ACS Land Records Division, which the city has hired as its vendor, will take $1. ACS updates and maintains the site. The service does not require any out-of-pocket expense for the city.

City Clerk Nathan Caron said when he was appointed in 2011, his goal was to update the office.

"This was a logical progression,'' he said Friday.

The website, www.uslandrecords.com., took seven months to build, he said, and contains land records dating back to 1969. All other documents are in the vault at City Hall and are accessible during regular business hours.

Last year, the clerk's office collected about $20,000 in copy fees, Caron said. He expects that number to increase because of the convenience of accessing the information online.

The next project, Caron said, is to move to e-recording for land records. In April, the state passed legislation that allows lawyers to send documents electronically to city and town clerk offices, he said.

Some of the details still need to be worked out, but Caron said he hopes by the first of the year the city will be part of the program.